Elsie Watty

Elsie Watty

Artisans

Basket makers

Basket making

Basketwork

Cherokee baskets

Cherokee women

Handicraft

Manners and customs

This undated photograph by an unknown photographer depicts basket weaver Elsie Watty separating white oak into splits in preparation for making a basket. Her daughter, Rebecca stands watching. Elsie Welch Watty (1935-2016) was a master Cherokee basket weaver who specialized in making white oak baskets and was known for creating her own designs. She lived and worked on the Galamore Branch in the Big Cove community near Cherokee. Although her mother and grandmother each wove baskets, neither of them taught her the craft. Instead, she learned by observation and began to make baskets when she was ten years old. In 1977 her work was exhibited at the Qualla Arts and Crafts Mutual artisan cooperative. While she was an active basket weaver, she is said to have made 100 baskets a year.

Unknown

Photograph Collection

Hunter Library Digital Collections, Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, NC 28723

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/

jpg

photographs

StillImage

10978

https://southernappalachiandigitalcollections.org/object/10978

2009-01-15

All rights reserved. For permissions and use, contact Museum of the Cherokee Indian, Cherokee, NC 28719;

Qualla Boundary

Appalachian Region, Southern

10" x 8"(dimension)

Cherokee Traditions